“Klaus, I don’t know what I want,” she said.
“You don’t?”
“No, I don’t. I don’t even know if I like you, but I feel … guilty. Greg is back there, and I think he’s trying to convince me to … I don’t know exactly what he is convincing me of, but either way, I don’t like it. He wanted to know if I had a mate, and I couldn’t exactly tell him no. So I kept on talking, and got him to talk, and now we’re here, in this situation. The truth is, yes, I do have a mate. I have you. The alpha’s son, who spent a great deal of our high school days hurting me.”
He held his hand up. “I didn’t spend a lot of time … bullying you. It was just a little bit.” Not that this helped at all. He had to learn to shut up.
“Fine. When no one could see you, hear you, or even report you to your own father. Every single chance we were alone, you were mean and hurtful. You pulled my freaking hair, Klaus.”
“Because you always wear your hair up. That can’t be comfortable.”
“What?”
“You have … pretty hair. I wasn’t actually trying to pull your hair that day. I was attempting to … pull the thing that kept it up.” He shrugged.
“You like my hair?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.”
He rubbed his palms down the sides of his pants.
You’ve got to connect with her.
Be open with her.
“I like a whole lot of other things about you as well.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“I like your smile,” he said. “It makes your eyes sparkle. I also happen to love that shade of green in your eyes.”
“This is the wolf talking.”
“I don’t care what is talking or not. This is how I feel. I also happen to love your ass.”
“My ass?”
“Yes.”
“My fat ass?”
Klaus took a deep breath. “Can we just agree that I am the biggest asshole in the world? I said a lot of things that were stupid and fucked up, and I regret it so damn much.”
She shrugged. “We can.”
He sighed and moved to sit beside her. The need to touch her was so strong.
Her hand rested on her knee. Throwing caution to the wind with the risk of rejection, he grabbed her hand, locking their fingers together.
Poppy didn’t pull away. She didn’t scream at him or tell him to fuck off.
This was good. In fact, she held his hand right back.
“I … I know I’ve got a lot of shit to make up for. I can’t just say sorry. I see that now. I hurt you. I was a dick.”
“You were.”